Lincoln & York is redefining the power of passion and partnership in the coffee community
Established 31 years ago in a humble garden shed, Lincoln & York has transformed from a two-person operation to one of the UK’s largest private label coffee roasters. Lincoln & York’s story began in 1994 when its founders, Simon Herring and James Sweeting, started roasting and selling coffee to local businesses. Just one year later, the company opened its first headquarters in Brigg, UK, and business quickly boomed.
Since then, Lincoln & York’s story has been nothing short of success. Today, the business turns over £75 million and continues to grow exponentially, having seen a ten percent growth in volume and 40 percent revenue growth in the last 12 months alone. Alongside this growth, Lincoln & York’s ethos has remained the same: to focus on quality, flexibility, and availability – three core values that have earned the respect of customers and helped the company to stand out in a competitive market.
It’s been almost four years since Food Chain sat down with Ian Bryson, Managing Director. Since then, the company has flourished, investing further in its strategic growth and cultivating real world impact. In 2024, Lincoln & York was proud to commemorate its 30th anniversary – a tremendous milestone that’s symbolic of its unwavering passion for people, communities, and for great quality coffee.
Now, with 2025 drawing to a close, Food Chain reconnects with Ian to discuss the business’ recent investments and take a deeper dive into its product development processes. He begins our conversation by unveiling Lincoln & York’s most significant investment of 2025.
“Over the last six years, we’ve invested over £10 million into the business. In 2025, we invested over £1 million in a high-speed packing line to help us pack bags for the hospitality industry,” he shares. “This is a large, fully-automated line which will give us greater speed and scale to win in new markets, such as the bakery and sandwich sector, which is one of the fastest growing markets out there.”
Data-driven development
With the equipment to further increase its efficiency and overall capacity, Lincoln & York is well-positioned to unlock new opportunities. Most of its products are bespoke; all expertly crafted to their unique profiles, brands, and specifications. As such, the company is always adding new products to its portfolio and, with over 600 different coffee blends sourced from more than 40 origins across the world, Lincoln & York’s capabilities are endless. When it comes to product development, the business boasts a wide assortment of coffee roasters all varying in size, so that each blend can be perfected before scaling. This also includes one of the country’s largest roasters at around 600 kilos, a far cry from the business’ beginnings of hand roasting in a garden shed. Combined with a dedicated team of four in-house Q graders, Lincoln & York’s customers can be sure that they’re receiving a product that’s crafted with passion and expertise. Ian elaborates further on the company’s approach to research and development.
“One of the key differences between Lincoln & York and other coffee roasters in the market is that we employ our own data and insight manager. We invest significantly in retail and out-of-home data so that we can understand exactly what’s happening with current sales across the market and what our customers will need,” he explains. “We use the VYPR software system, which allows us to put several market research questions out to a panel of people and gain almost instant responses. It gives us data and insight that we can then take into the coffee lab where our development team and Q graders can develop new blends for customers – whether experimenting with new origins or taste profiles or exploring potential improvements to existing products.”
By leveraging this customer-centric approach, Lincoln & York is consistently able to stay one step ahead of the rapidly-evolving coffee market. The company responds to global consumer trends to provide its customers with the most relevant products and innovations. Specifically, Lincoln & York is looking to expand into the cold coffee market with some exciting product launches.
“In the UK, ready-to-drink coffees are worth around £350 million, and that’s growing by ten percent year on year, so there’s lots of opportunity for us to get into this market,” Ian affirms. “There have been some new products on the market this year; coffee concentrates, for instance, have entered the UK market in the last 12 to 18 months.
“We’re hoping to launch some ready-to-drink can products in 2026, as well as introduce some bag in box products and concentrates into our hospitality and retail markets to help us cover all parts of the sector.”
Global coffee community
Complementary to its focus on customer care, Lincoln & York is also dedicated to its global coffee community, from the coffee farmers across each of its origins to supporting industry-enhancing organizations such as World Coffee Research.
“A couple of years ago, we identified that we wanted to increase activity at our origins. Our coffee and commercial teams visit our origins two to three times a year and they’re always treated very well by the local communities who don’t have an awful lot. We’ve always given money and recompensed them so that they’re not spending their hard-earned money on us. During one particular visit, we funded a project in Burundi to build a reservoir, as the community were walking up to six hours a day to get fresh water. That reservoir now supplies fresh water to 2000 homes and a local school; it’s mind-blowing how big of a difference it’s made to the community,” Ian says, sharing one of Lincoln & York’s most recent humanitarian projects.
Climate-resilient varieties
Turning to environmental efforts, Ian is thrilled to highlight Lincoln & York’s support for World Coffee Research: a global non-profit committed to securing the future of coffee farming. “Statistics from World Coffee Research state that coffee demand is set to double by 2050, whilst sustainable land may decline by 50 percent. Climate has a big effect in the origins that we buy coffee from, so if we don’t do something now, we won’t have the coffee that we need in the future,” he continues. “We’ve partnered with World Coffee Research for many years now. The organization is trying to develop climate-resilient coffee varieties, and the scale at which they’re developing is amazing. We’re one of their largest contributors in the UK and it’s something we’re very proud of.”
Having just surpassed 30 years in business, it’s clear that Lincoln & York is well-positioned for many more decades of success. By upholding its core values and the passion with which it was established, the company is set to build further on its existing legacy, pioneering exciting new products and blends whilst making a real difference to coffee communities all over the world.
“We have four values that we live by every day – those are Teamwork, Accountability, Trust and Discretion, and Fun. We’re a very honest and down-to-earth bunch, which I think really resonates with our customers. We still have the same shareholders within the business who have been the driving force behind us doing things properly and being so successful,” Ian reveals. “If we lose sight of our customers, they will buy their coffee from someone else, so there’ll never be any complacency within our business. Because of this, we’ve built many long-term trusted partnerships with our customers, some of which span over 20 years.
“Looking ahead, we want to be a £100-million business by the end of 2030 and increase our volume by 50 percent,” he concludes, optimistic for the future. “That growth is going to be driven by continued investment into our factory and our people. As long as we continue to do that, we’re confident that we’ll have the quality, flexibility, and scalability to generate new opportunities to supply everything that our customers could need.”